Shadow Slave

With a faint smile on her face, Nephis nodded and raised her sword, pointing it at him in invitation. Sunny summoned the Sin of Solace and took a stance opposite her. From the Forgotten Shore to the basement of his home in the peaceful terrace district, they had trained with each other numerous times. This simple sequence of actions was as natural for them as breathing.

However, today, there was an awkward pause.

Sunny scratched the back of his head and glanced at the jade jian.

"That... isn't going to work, is it?"

Nephis seemed to have come to a similar conclusion, looking at him sheepishly.

'No, what the hell... since when does she know how to emote? This is just too cute...'

He coughed.

The problem facing them was that both had grown too powerful - and, subsequently, the weapons they used were too powerful, too. The Sin of Solace was a Transcendent Memory of the Fifth Tier, and quite a harrowing one at that. Sunny was not entirely sure what the level of Neph's longsword was, but it had to be quite a menacing weapon, as well, considering that it had come from the soul arsenal of a Saint.

It would be already bad enough if the Sin of Solace damaged or destroyed it. But what if Sunny was not careful enough and scratched Nephis in the process? The curse of madness carried by the jade blade would either crush her mental defenses, or at least put debilitating pressure on her mind for a period of time.

Standing some distance away, the spirit of the jian smiled.

"No, no. Don't worry... I'll be gentle."

However, that smile of his was more than a little bit sinister.

Sunny frowned, then dismissed the jade sword and got lost in thought for a few moments. Eventually, a smile of delight appeared on his lips.

"Let's do this."

then slowly formed into two inky

of the shapes Sunny had practiced relentlessly, after all. The longsword was a little bit tricky, since he had never created one before. Nevertheless, he was familiar with it as well, and

would be easier than shaping them into articulated hands, since weapons were static by nature. However, in reality,

certain characteristics to feel right in the hand - weight, balance, flexibility and rigidity, center of percussion that Neph had recently mentioned, and so on. It was especially daunting with something like the odachi,

Clan Valor had been preventing him

could also affect the material composition of the manifested shadows, although that demanded a higher essence expenditure. He could manipulate the density of the shadows, for example. He

difficult to achieve, but after inventing Shadow Incarnation, Sunny made a breakthrough in his mastery of Shadow Manifestation

that was to

Nephis dismissed her longsword and curiously took the shadow weapon from his hand, he secretly held his breath. She weighed the black longsword, then

"That works."

suppressed a proud smile and raised his

"Let's begin, then."

blades like this one. Maybe because it was what he had learned swordsmanship with, wielding Midnight Shard on the Forgotten

slightly, Sunny

them were instantly entangled in a breathtaking dance of singing steel. Their swift figures blurred, and soon, nothing but a dark shape and a light shape could be seen, moving across the green moss

'She really has improved...'

swordsmanship felt... different. It had always been somewhat ineffable due to her eerie ability to control both the battlefield and

seemed the same. The cadence seemed the same. The offensive and defensive moves seemed the same, as

too extreme even for an Ascended

he was drowning in her flowing

is she so

did not understand the same principles Neph had spoken about.

had become second nature to him. By manipulating how much his body, or various parts of it, weighed on the fly, he was able to enhance the force of his attacks, secure his balance, and even perform seemingly impossible moves by shifting his center